I am an Oxford graduate and recently qualified English teacher (PGCE finished in 2016) who was always told off for 'reinventing the wheel'. I thought I may as well share the fruits of my labours!
I am an Oxford graduate and recently qualified English teacher (PGCE finished in 2016) who was always told off for 'reinventing the wheel'. I thought I may as well share the fruits of my labours!
This resource is an article about Electronic Dance Music (which many of my lower ability pupils like), with questions matched up to the new AQA Paper 2 English Language GCSE - a true/false task and a language analysis task at the end to brainstorm. There is a separate worksheet which requires you to cut up the sentences so pupils can do a card sort, focusing on PEEL paragraphs and being able to identify which sentence performs which function. It is aimed at a lower-middling ability class, but you can differentiate and ask higher ability pupils to focus on planning the language analysis task without the paragraph/PEEL sheet (which they could present to the class).
Skills: analysis, synthesis, interpretation, close reading, paragraph writing, P E E, reading skills, language analysis, true or false
A quick pupil-friendly glossary (with examples) of new key terms for rhetorical devices for A Level English Language pupils.
Handy to use when introducing new terms as you look at rhetoric and speeches or political speaking. We used them as a checklist for looking at interviews between Russell Brand and Ed Miliband, and one between Jonathan Ross and Keira Knightley and then discussed how these techniques can tie in with wider issues on the course: e.g. gender, power, class.
Information sheets with little activities to introduce pupils to subject terminology and to signposting phrases which they can use in their own writing.
GCSE skills - subject terminology, analysis, evaluation, higher-level explanation.
Winter Swans is a poem in the GCSE AQA anthology for Love and Relationships. This lesson is aimed at a mixed ability group, and is differentiated and scaffolded, with a large element of personal choice for the final task. The powerpoint uses visual stimuli to appeal to visual learners.
Powerpoint, lesson plan and copy of poem altered to emit the most interesting language - give pupils this first so that they are forced to think about the interesting choices the poet makes.
close-reading, poetry, KS4, GCSE
Designed for pupils studying for their English Language non-fiction exam. An example review with a task where they have to spot persuasive techniques. Can easily be used as a whole lesson if used with a starter recapping techniques, and an additional task of writing their own review of a meal they had recently.
Powerpoint, worksheet and poem copies for Before You Were Mine. Made for teaching the AQA Poetry Anthology on Love and Relationships. Questions on the worksheet increase in difficulty - you can differentiate by asking different pupils to start at different points.
Language analysis, close-reading, interpretation
This is a resource designed to recap persuasive and letter features for pupils and give them a chance to improve a poorly written argument.
You can easily differentiate by asking higher ability pupils to focus on register, style, vocabulary and adding in techniques, while asking lower ability pupils to find the problems and suggest simple improvements.
The “voice” in the letter to improve is a teenage pyromaniac who goes off topic.
Resource includes a technique recap and reminders of the key ingredients for persuasive letter writing and arguments.
Could be set as a main activity, or a starter or plenary to recap prior or previous learning.
Could also be set as a homework task or project.
Perfect for revising or teaching the new GCSE AQA Paper 2 Writers’ viewpoints and perspectives Section B writing task. Discusses the need to be convincing and consider tone, style, register, form, audience and purpose.
These two sheets help pupils plan and write creative writing which fits the A-level exam specs. The planning creative writing sheet takes a total of 50 minutes and gets them to think about their commentary, so this could be a full lesson with the commentary set.
The Writing Fiction Lesson doc is designed to be printed on A3. It is designed to be a whole lesson which works collaboratively with a class - split them into pairs. Firstly, get the original pair to write their name on the top of their worksheet. 1) Pass the sheet around as many sets of pairs as it takes to fill the planning chart, giving them a certain amount of time to fill in one row per pair (can be differentiated). 2) The original pair fill out 'story one' as an excerpt from a short story - they choose the guidelines from the grid and tick it off. 3) Pass it on and repeat step two with a new pair. 4) Pass back to original pair to evaluate the writing (using two different colours) using the evaluation grid. Peer marking! Can then set easily set an improvement task, if you want to.
Revision guide for English Literature new AQA Spec.
Revision tips, revision questions, modelling.
Guides to using revision booklets
Practise questions and tasks.
A ‘pre-flight checklist’ style resource for A Level students learning how to write an language analysis response looking at how authors create meaning and representation.
Halloween theme, sort of - skeleton metaphor throughout.
Descriptive language task with a picture prompt and teacher modelling of descriptive techniques and language devices. Suitable for GCSE and A Level pupils. Differentiated - task more able pupils with inventing their own examples for each technique, and use the modelling to scaffold the less able pupils.
Exam style question echoes the structure of the new GCSE AQA spec for English Language Paper 1 Section B - Creative Writing
Differentiated lesson materials aimed at a class of students ranging from A-D grades.
2 x lesson plans and 2 x lesson powerpoints, and differentiated support resources including definitions of difficult terms. Quotes to give to any struggling pupils while the table-fill task is underway.
Poem in the AQA GCSE Anthology on Love and Relationships. Powerpoint includes starter, main activities, annotation guiding questions to discuss, and plenary based on PEE paragraph writing.
Poetry, essay-writing skills, GCSE, close-reading, interpretation
2-3 WHOLE LESSONS
This resource was created at the end of a GCSE module on An Inspector Calls. The powerpoint covers 2 lessons - the cover sheet can be set as the first lesson without the powerpoint but using the two worksheets (ingredients of genres, who is Inspector Goole).
The powerpoint has interactive timers and visual stimuli to appeal to all learners and to keep the lesson at a good pace/ keep pupils engaged, and the starter worksheet should be done as a fast-paced discussion/ competition.
The writing part of the unit of work can be set as homework or completed in lesson time - you can either have pupils peer mark, feedback on and rework just 1 paragraph OR an entire short story.
A teaching powerpoint, an original mock paper (with source booklet) I have created and original exemplar answers at different grades (differentiated) I have created using the text Mrs Dalloway, which fits the GCSE English Lang Paper 1 spec for the new AQA paper.
Also included - an original mock paper, source booklet, and differentiated exemplar answers at different grades for Lord of the Flies, which also fits the spec.
The teaching powerpoint includes advice on the skills needed (close-reading, analysis, inference, etc.), how to approach the paper etc., this powerpoint uses student-friendly language and could be easily adapted for a different text/ mock/ exemplar set.
The papers and source booklets have been painstakingly created in order to follow the format of - and print like - actual exam papers.
This resource includes the following files:
Teaching powerpoint for approaching paper 1 (Mrs Dalloway)
Original mock exam paper 1 (Mrs Dalloway)
Original mock exam paper 2 (Lord of the Flies)
Original source booklet 1 (Mrs Dalloway)
Original source booklet 2 (Lord of the Flies)
Original differentiated exemplars booklet 1 (Mrs Dalloway)
Original differentiated exemplars booklet 1 (Lord of the Flies)
AQA cover sheet for papers if set as a mock
When used with the reading/writing resources from the website TeachIt for the new Paper 1, this resource forms an entire scheme of work.
Resource created to use with GCSE poem anthology during revision. Students create their own diamante poem using the template on the worksheet. They have to think about structure and themes, and select the most relevant phrases, so it's great for making them really think.
As an extension, pupils can read and peer-review others' poems, create a new diamante poem from the same base poem (but flip the mood or atmosphere, for higher ability) or move on to a new base poem and complete the revision activity for the new text.
Work for Neutral Tones (GCSE Literature Love and Relationships Poetry Anthology AQA). Close-reading skills, comprehension skills, different perspectives and critical material, essay-writing skills, thinking skills.
Worksheet on responses (agree/ disagree) to poem to be done in pairs.
Task where pupils replace the emotive words to create a poem with a different mood or tone (higher ability).
A detailed worksheet introducing the different types of sentence: simple, compound, complex and compound-complex to pupils with tasks. Includes references to popular culture and Disney villains to assist understanding. Designed to try and make a rather dry topic a bit more fun.
Grammar, sentence structures, different sentence types, exam criteria, national curriculum.